Results 34,261-34,280 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I take this opportunity to commend the professionalism of all the gardaí involved in securing a safe outcome to the very dangerous situation that occurred in Whitechapel, Clonsilla, the other day. I particularly want to recognise the bravery of the two detectives who were on the scene. On behalf of the Government, I wish them both a rapid and complete recovery. ...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I am as keen as he is to get back to watching a match and getting back on the stands. I am increasingly confident that is going to be possible over the course of the summer. We will make a decision on this at the Cabinet meeting on Friday. I can say that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the Minister of...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I should point out that the time limit of 105 minutes, or just under two hours, applies only indoors and only when the tables are not more than 2 m apart, so if the tables are more than 2 m apart, there is no such time limit. The reason for it is that if people spend more than two hours in each other's presence in the same room, they are considered to be close contacts, and it is to avoid an...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I express my admiration for the Deputy’s commitment to this issue, which I know she has raised on a number of occasions on behalf of parents and children. I cannot make any commitment today but, once again, she has put it firmly on my radar and that will feed into the discussions we have tonight and tomorrow. I think the indication given by the Minister, Deputy...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy. I will check that out and speak to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, about it. As the Deputy knows, in the rent pressure zones, which cover the vast majority of tenancies in the country, the maximum increase is 4%. I did not envisage that people would be able to apply a retrospective year. An 8% increase for anyone would be a very large increase in any one year. I must...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am not aware of it. The Department does receive notifications of redundancies and sometimes of acquisitions. I have not seen this come across my desk yet. It might be that it falls under the transfer of undertakings and the staff would receive protections under that, but I would have to check it out. I will ask my officials to make contact with the company and see what we can do.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I should say again for the record that the 105-minute rule only applies indoors and only applies where tables are less than 2 m apart. It will be a decision, and I appreciate an expensive decision, for restaurants and pubs as to how they configure their tables. The guidelines are not the final word on this and will be reviewed in a few weeks' time if the epidemiological position continues...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: People have a social obligation to pay their bills and taxes and settle their debts because if they do not do so, they pass those bills and costs onto society and onto other people. That is why they have a moral obligation to do the right thing. I appreciate there will be individual circumstances where people cannot pay for one reason or another. Whether the HSE uses debt collection...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I am happy to engage on the issue of Shannon, alongside my colleagues. I have already been talking to Aer Lingus. As the Deputy knows, to secure the future of the airport we will need to allow people to return to international travel again. The Deputy also will be aware that for some time, her party thought the travel restrictions we brought in were not strict enough. I am glad that she...

Written Answers — Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment: Foreign Direct Investment (27 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: IDA Ireland issued a request for tender for a part-time Israel based Business Development Consultant on 26 April 2021. This person will represent IDA to support its efforts to win new investment. IDA Ireland regularly engages business development consultants, and this is a model used across many geographies. The Business Development Consultant will be expected to identify...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the invitation to speak today and for the opportunity to contribute to the committee's consideration of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, the free trade agreement between the EU and Canada. Ratifying CETA is Government policy and an objective of mine as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I welcome the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I reiterate that ratifying CETA is Government policy and an objective of mine as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. While I welcome the scrutiny, I do not want ratification delayed and drifting indefinitely, and for Ireland to have to stand by and watch other member states ratify it ahead of us, as the majority already have. That would send out the wrong message to the world,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: Fundamentally, there are a few things we need to accept. If one has an investment treaty, one must have some form of dispute resolution system. An investor court system is as good as any and better than an investor-state dispute settlement, ISDS. This will not be renegotiated. It has been ratified by most member states. I would not like Ireland to be the country that holds this up. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: We had a meeting of EU trade ministers last week in Brussels. It was the first time we met in person since Berlin last year and my first time in Brussels since February 2020. It used to be kind of a second home. It was strange to be there again but great to meet up in person. Hopefully, that will be the norm again from now on. We had a very long meeting. It went on all day. CETA did...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I agree with Deputy Howlin on a few points. We have no concerns about the domestic court system in Canada and I do not think that Canada has any concerns about the domestic court system in Ireland. I am not sure if that is necessarily the case for every EU country. There are some EU countries which unfortunately do not uphold the kind of legal standards of independence of the courts as we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I would like it to have been done already, when we attempted to put it to a vote in the Dáil last December, but our partners in government wanted to take a bit more time to allow committees such as this to scrutinise it. We were happy to concede to that. I would ideally like it to be put to a vote before the summer recess, and certainly no later than this year. I do not want to go...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: In regard to the argument on regulatory chill, it is clear in CETA that the Government continues to have the right to regulate. That is specifically directed to allay concerns about regulatory chill. Most investment claims do not challenge the Government's ability to legislate or regulate but are administrative in character. A Government or State actor would be sued not because it has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: It should not have any impact on the taxpayer unless a very the strange situation whereby a Canadian company can prove in court that it has been discriminated against by the Irish Government or one of its agencies. I do not see that arising. As I mentioned earlier, there is a potential very positive impact for the Irish taxpayer in that it is estimated that CETA will grow our GDP by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: It is impossible for me to comment on the second question. Under the lobbying Act anyone who carries out lobbying has to declare on whose behalf the lobbying is being carried out. It is a question for SIPO more so than for me. My understanding is that anybody who is lobbying a designated public official, which all of us are, must declare that and state what the purpose of the lobbying was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: Discussion with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (26 May 2021)

Leo Varadkar: I understand the argument in favour of a precautionary approach but if we took that approach we would not have signed up to anything. I do not think we would have signed up to the European Court of Justice, which is able to overrule our national courts. That is a more far-reaching action than could ever arise from something like CETA. We would not have signed up to the International Court...